The week began with the FBI deputy director abruptly stepping down from his job after months of open accusations of anti-Republican bias from President Donald Trump, and it ended with Trump hinting ominously that he might get rid of the No. 2 at the Department of Justice over the Russia investigation.

In between, the president approved the release of a previously classified House intelligence committee memo detailing claims of misconduct by officials investigating Trump’s presidential campaign, over the clear objections of his own FBI director, Christopher Wray.

The move put Trump openly at odds with the whole of the nation’s law enforcement apparatus, including rank-and-file agents. The president did little to downplay the breach, telling pool reporters in the Oval Office who asked on Friday whether he still had confidence in Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, after reading the memo: “You figure that one out.”

In a TV interview Friday night, White House spokesman Raj Shah seemed to rule out any move by Trump to fire Rosenstein or other officials at the Justice Department.

“On the deputy attorney general, there has been no change in the president’s confidence in the DAG,” Shah said on CNN. “No changes are going to be made at the Department of Justice. We fully expect Rod Rosenstein to continue on as the deputy attorney general.”

For his part, Wray signaled that he isn’t planning to quit over the memo release. In an email Friday afternoon, he told his staff to grit their teeth and press on with their work.

“Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure,” Wray wrote in a memo distributed across the FBI. “We do that work, and we stay laser-focused on doing great work, even when it’s not easy, because we believe in the FBI … Let me be clear: I stand fully committed to our mission.”

In the message, read to POLITICO by an FBI official, Wray didn’t mention Trump explicitly, but seemed to allude to the sharp criticism Trump has directed at the FBI since he fired Wray’s predecessor, James Comey, last May.

“You’ve all been through a lot in the past nine months and I know it’s often been unsettling to say the least and the past few days haven’t done much to calm those waters. So I want to make sure you know where I stand and what I want us to do moving forward,” he wrote.

The run-in between the White House and FBI may have been inevitable. Since his victory in 2016, Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on intelligence assessments concerning Russian interference in the presidential election, and he has made clear that he sees support for the investigation into that interference — and into his own efforts to dampen that investigation, including the Comey firing — as evidence of insubordination.

He spent days calling for the release of the House intelligence memo, written by his California Republican ally Representative Devin Nunes, and grousing about what he has called unfair treatment of him by the intelligence community, according to administration officials.

Some of Trump’s allies expressed hope that the release of the memo wasn’t the end of the saga but a move that would add momentum to a snowballing series of disclosures that could drive out Rosenstein and bring about an end to the investigation overseen by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller.

“This memo will lead to more releases of more material and it will go on and on,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a close confidant of Trump. “We will be shocked at how deep the sickness was.”

Gingrich also called the FBI press release opposing the public disclosure of the memo “such extraordinary insubordination” by Wray.

However, some Republicans who supported release of the memo seemed to throw cold water on attempts by Trump and his closest allies to leverage the disclosure into a head-on attack on Rosenstein or Mueller.

“As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” Representative Trey Gowdy, an intel panel member, wrote on Twitter. “The contents of this memo do not — in any way — discredit his investigation.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan also remarked Thursday that he saw no connection between the memo and Rosenstein, even though it names him as having approved continued Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants for the communications of onetime Trump adviser Carter Page without disclosing that Democrats funded some of the research the FBI used to justify the snooping.

“This does not implicate the Mueller investigation. This does not implicate the DAG,” Ryan said, referring to the deputy attorney general. “This is about us holding the system accountable and reviewing whether or not FISA abuses occur.”

FBI veterans rallied to the side of Wray and Rosenstein on Friday, decrying as bizarre the notion that they are involved in some sort of politically driven campaign against the president.

“Wray and Rosenstein are Trump appointees. He appointed them,” said Lewis Schiliro, former head of the FBI’s New York field office. “Now, you turn around and say they are biased? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Rosenstein remained publicly mum on the memo issue Friday. He appeared at a Justice Department human trafficking conference Friday morning but did not respond to the president’s decision to ease release of the memo by declassifying it.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions weighed in, even though he has recused himself from all matters related to the 2016 election due to his role in the Trump campaign.

“Congress has made inquiries concerning an issue of great importance for the country and concerns have been raised about the Department’s performance. I have great confidence in the men and women of this Department. But no Department is perfect,” Sessions said in a statement. “Accordingly, I will forward to appropriate DOJ components [and] all information I receive from Congress regarding this. I am determined that we will fully and fairly ascertain the truth.”

Sessions also mounted something of a defense of Rosenstein earlier in the day Friday, declaring at a Justice Department event that Rosenstein exemplifies “the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department.”

While much in the memo seems aimed at providing fodder for critics of the Russia investigation, some of the details illustrate the challenges Trump will face if he moves against Rosenstein, including in any bid to oust Mueller.

The newly disclosed document makes clear the broad scope of the purge that will be required if Trump wants to root out everyone in government who played a role in the Page surveillance.

The memo shows that, in addition to Rosenstein, former acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente also signed off on the submission of at least one renewal of the FISA warrant aimed at Carter Page.

Boente, who was named by Trump to serve as acting attorney general in January 2017 after acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired, is currently serving in two Justice Department posts: as the U.S. Attorney in Alexandria, Virginia, and as the acting head of DOJ’s National Security Division.

Wray recently tapped Boente to become the FBI’s general counsel, filling the shoes of an official some Trump administration official some considered too close to Comey.

And just last week, in a speech calling for the depoliticization of the Justice Department, Sessions praised Boente.

“Dana has just been a right hand to me. Somebody I trust. I like. I value,” the attorney general said. “You’ve got to have people around you like that.”

Related stories on these topics:

mmh

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it. Theodore Roosevelt

Posted on 2/3/18 | 10:57 AM CET

Cool_Red_MAGA_Hat

To be honest, I don’t think that Trump’s goal is to intimidate FBI or to fire Muller. By the same token, the “Russian collusion” investigation isn’t really about impeachment (waaay to unlikely).

What we see is a war of narratives. Democrats can’t compete with Republicans on real issues because Trump’s policies are popular (tax reform, wall, end of chain migration etc.). Facing midterm elections in 2018, the democrats are desperate to use any means to increase the chances of a generic democratic candidate. Negative media buzz is their only chance (grab ’em buy the p****, racist, white supremacist, colluded with Russia, sh*thole countries and so on and so forth).

The Republican memo is an attempt to win this war of narratives and to deprive the democrats of their last chance to any electoral success this year. I don’t think that Republicans need this because the American people start to see that the world is not collapsing and – contrary to liberal pundits – their lives have gotten better. But it’s a “nice-to-have” to show how miserable these commies are. 🙂

Posted on 2/3/18 | 11:33 AM CET

TY

One things for certain after this…they can not indite or impeach Trump based on the presidents ‘motivation’ for firing coomey. DNC are back looking for a smoking gun that may well not be there….

Posted on 2/3/18 | 12:26 PM CET

Tomonthebeach

If you are Trumpette, you see this memo as clear proof of improper politicization of the Russia probe. If they had any analytic skills they would not have voted for a candidate who openly encouraged Russia during rallies to meddle in the elections.

To any lawyer, this is a cherry-picked selection of facts that at first seem like malfeasance, until you look at the dates and realize that there is no link between the campaign and FBI activities because the targets were naughty boyz ex cathedra and/or before the election.

What this political document does is create bad precedents like a political hand grenade tossing shrapnel throughout the government. McCain nicely described the situation. In the end, the damage will leave scars, but the memo will have achieved nothing more than choir practice for Sean Hannity.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 12:28 PM CET

M LB

@Cool_Red_MAGA_Hat
Maybe you are right, But what the Dutch found when they got access to Cozy Bear.
They saw and recorded Cozy Bear hacking and Stealing the E-mails, And furthermore they have Correspondence between Cozy Bear and High level officials in the Russian Government.
But if there has been collusion between Russia and Trump’s Team.
There are some indicators that there might have been something going on. As for Trump Personally, I don’t think he was personally involved or even Knew about it.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 2:11 PM CET

EK

The only clear evidence of FSB meddling in our recent elections is the Steele Dossier, which was commissioned by the Clinton campaign, compiled chiefly from FSB sources by Christopher Steele and shopped to the FBI by the nomenklatura and apparatchiks in the Obama Administration.

This disinformation was then used by Obama appointees in DoJ and the FBI to obtain warrants from the secret FISA court to surveil Trump and the Trump campaign. Then the FBI and DoJ began selectively leaking information obtained from the surveillance to our very own Lügenpresse in order to drum up support for a criminal investigation of the target of the disinformation. John Le Carré must be impressed.

Still, Hilly lost to Donald Trump, of all people, and still Donald Trump’s position continues to strengthen. It is amusing to imagine what the election returns would have looked like had the election not been so corrupted.

Anyway, enough of us have followed the antics of the state presses in the EU over Hungary and Poland so that all this is not a surprise. As we have learned from Hungary and Poland; give these fools enough rope and they will eagerly hang themselves.

This has been a very good week in the US.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 3:46 PM CET

Veritas-Semper

President Trump is spot on. He was elected to drain the swamp and he has engaged with the most dangerous creatures…

If the Dimms were smart (key word, IF) they would stop overplaying their self induced hysteria. Otherwise, the voters’ response will be quite painful for the shellacked Dimms…

Posted on 2/4/18 | 12:51 AM CET

georgi 4542354

GE0RG1 … 2018 USA EU ECONOMIC PROGNOSIS USD DECLINE , EUR DECLINE , INFLATION DUE TO ILLEGALLY PRINTED MONEY -FED ECB CAN ONLY BLUFF WITH FAKE NEWS ARTICLES FOR NEW NON CREDIBLE 7 TRILLIONS BUYBACK FOR UP TO 50 YEARS AVERAGE DURATION CORPORATE BONDS OR ILLEGALLY PRINTING MONEY ON SHARE AND BOND MARKET TO ADD TO THE WASTED 7 TRILLIONS WITH OVER 20 YEARS AVERAGE DURATION SO THAT YOU WILL NOT EXPECT 10 USD INCREASE VS 50 USD DECREASE WITH EQUAL PROBABILITY. FOR LOTTERY ONE DOLLAR IS GAMBLED NOT YOUR APARTMENT THAT EACH FAMILY IN USA SHOULD GAMBLE TO BUY THE SHARES THE RICH HOLD NOW SO SELL YOUR SHARES ON HIGH PRICES. USA AND EU CURRENCY RESERVES ARE OVER , the dollar and eur decline currency small currency reserves will end and dollar and eur will devaluate over to the observes decline by now some additional to 20% dollar and 10 % eur due to further returned currency reserves by rest of the world – cash , some 8 tn corporate bonds and some 20 tn sovereign bonds will be devaluated to nominal usa gdp that may increase some 50 % due to inflation , as deposits and credits will be partially indexed for high inflation – as illegally printed money inflow stop , with currency reserves end, inflated shares will decline with over a third to historic pe ratio , inflated sovereign and corporate bonds prices will also decline. Pending some 45 % inflation and some 30 % currency devaluation are fast in US EU. People probably lose trust in us currency as bitcoin hit 150 millions mass searches in usa , plus 75 millions in rest of world according to google currency small currency reserves will end and dollar and eur will devaluate over to the observes decline by now some additional to 20% dollar and 10 % eur due to further returned currency reserves by rest of the world – cash , some 8 tn corporate bonds and some 20 tn sovereign bonds will be devaluated to nominal usa gdp that may increase some 50 % due to inflation , as deposits and credits will be partially indexed for high inflation – as illegally printed money inflow stop , with currency reserves end, inflated shares will decline with over a third to historic pe ratio , inflated sovereign and corporate bonds prices will also decline. Pending some 45 % inflation and some 30 % currency devaluation are fast in US EU. People probably lose trust in us currency as bitcoin hit 150 millions mass searches in usa , plus 75 millions in rest of world according to google trends in last weeks of 2017. There is impossible trinity usa and eu to keep dollar and eu exchange rate with free capital flows as their currency reserves will end. Data show USA hold some 100 bn currency reserves , eurozone some 60 at 2017 end as with all banks currency reserves for all usa in 2016 end was some 400 bn and should be quite depleted by now. The risk for avalanche returned currency reserves due to illegally printed money are huge by at least some 5 tn reserves in usd and some 1.6 tn in eur hold by other countries as the first one who return win due to usd and eur expected devaluation. USA and EU might have even borrowed currency reserves to continue printing money to keep share , sovereign and corporate bonds inflated at 2017 end. With decline of buyback from some 650 bn to some 500 bn yearly last 7Q we can infer some 0.5 trillion usd are printed illegally to be added to share market to keep share growth. If half of these 0.5 tn are out of safes this is 8 % increase of money supply. According to quantitative theory of money M V = p Y , with 2 % inflation , 2 % growth there is 6 % decline in potential output that will be realized down and go to inflation latter for now. In 2018 will be printed some more 0.3 tn money to be added to 500 bn buyback for share growth. So far from QE there are some 1trillion usd in safes , 0.25 in safes illegally printed money, 0.25 tn in circulation illegally , 0.3 to be printed in 2018 so this is some 1,8 tn out of 3.6 tn usa M1 this is some 50 % inflation pending in usa and 30 % dollar devaluation that will be fast. FED will raise interest rate , though discount rate do not influence much interest rate when public holds some 1.25 tn in safes so they are the central bank now and will move to deposits for low interest rate , so restricted influence of fed on interest rate. The real interest rate will remain negative as now. With inflation banks will increase interest rates on deposits not to disappear and credits respectively similar to Russia recently. Further risk of pensions, health , housing by 2 tn to be covered for hyperinflation in usa as inefficient budget deficits are envisaged in tax bill to increase bonds yields as well. The share pe ratio is so high historically no one will take the bet to buy shares for 10 % expected increase vs 30 % expected decrease so rich will hold all shares to their decline and illegal money printing for inflated shares ,sovereign and corporate bonds will be not successful and create only distortions in anyway declining real economy.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 3:54 PM CET

georgi 4542354

GE0RG1 … ON WEAK POLICYMAKERS TO BE USED FOR ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE . THE CORRUPTED POLITICIANS HAVE ONLY ONE OPTION TO TESTIFY WHO IS BEHIND THEM , IN FRONT OF ALL THE SOCIETY , THEY WILL NOT DARE TO HURT THEM . The scientists and the capital put themselves in the shoes of the politicians to control them. Ask the mentioned persons until when they will endanger the health of my family for the facts I reveal that endangers their financial markets forever. My family was moderately poisoned these days to scare me not to write here. They paly with version of fake strong economic growth for share bubble to cheat you , I present version with a lot of illegally printed money and waisted currency reserves and waisted EU deposits you pay for and they poison me to scare me. Look behind unpopular policymakers in these difficult times. USA strives with share bubble to steal the money of USA citizens, EU will steal EU deposits that will cover EU bank losses and the deposits of Draghi friends taken away to be refinanced. EU leaving deposits cannot be covered by ECB printed money or the trillion or more redistributed with TARGET 2 and may be stolen by USA. So look for the centers of power for the coming events as USA and for EU France , Germany and UK. If policymakers are responsible in front of people , behind them are scientist and behind scientists capital. You see the record low policymakers support in many cases for persons as Trump , Christine Lagarde , May , Macron , Merkel , Draghi and all ECB governors, Yellen , Powell and all FED governors , Carney , Junker , Moscovici and all EU commissioners. Sometimes these low popular politicians may be influenced with legal cases and other means as Lagarde or Trump. So raise these questions in front of knowledgeable scientists as Krugman , Obstfeld , Rogoff ,Tibshirani , Stiglitz , Tirole , Deaton , Blundell , Thaler , Guillen ,Schauble, Kretshmer , Falk, Shiller , Bernanke ,Summers , Romer , all Bruegel . Ask them for economic data in EU , UK and USA if they think that are correct as economic growth , inflation , profits , currency reserves , deposits. Ask them if money are printed in USA , EU , UK illegally to finance share bubbles and if they are not the minds behind these low support politicians , what they expect to happen in the economy to be appointed so unpopular politicians and if they are controlled with unfair means. If deposits leave EU hidden when USA banks open and on Friday as you see EUR rate last days , but next days ECB will change this pattern in a bluff that is not successful. Raise these questions to all mentioned up people publicly for court to preserve democracy , economy and follow carefully for abuse of law and democracy. Ask all company managers that participated in USA 7 trillion buyback if they are in collision and USA banks , nasdaq companies if they are aware for FED illegally printed money. Not to hide themselves or close phones these days.